Food cravings in perimenopause and menopause

Today's topic:

Are you finding that you're constantly craving chocolates, biscuits, crisps, pasta, rice? It's a big problem in perimenopause and menopause with lots of women finding that they are craving certain foods and their appetite is just going totally out of control.

So, in this blog, I am going to explain why this can happen and how you can help yourself.

Causes of food craving, and types of food that you can crave

So, the problem is that when we start to crave these foods, they tend to be not the healthiest ones, and that can very quickly disrupt our healthy eating patterns. Very often, we will binge and it will be high-sugar, high-salt, and high-fat foods, all the things that are not particularly good for us on a daily basis.

So, let's take a look at what can be causing some of your cravings:

1. Low blood sugar levels

One of the main reasons is low blood sugar levels. The problem is that our ability to control our blood sugar level, which keeps our appetite stable, can become very erratic in perimenopause and menopause. It can go up and down really quickly. You can literally be fine one minute and the next minute you get this huge urge and craving to have something sweet, and nothing you can say to yourself will stop that particular craving.

In this situation, it tends to be sugary foods you crave. So, it's sweets, chocolates, chocolate biscuits, your simple carbohydrates, such as cakes and puddings. It can also be caffeine, because what happens is that these foods and caffeine will bring your blood sugar levels back up really quickly so, suddenly, you'll feel so much better.

However, because these are very simple foods and drinks, your blood sugar levels will drop really quickly and you might feel fine for an hour but then, all of a sudden, the whole thing happens again. So, you get this vicious cycle of craving these foods and drinks, feeling good for a little while, then feeling lousy again; and it can just go on and on. It can be very difficult to control.

2. Fatigue and poor sleep

Fatigue and poor sleep can cause cravings too. Now, these are both common perimenopause and menopause problems. Again, poor sleep will make you crave food. It's known that poor sleep can increase your calorie intake by about 200 or 300 calories a day, without you actually realising it.

When you are really tired and fatigued, again, you're wanting a quick hit. You might find a common time for fatigue and low blood sugar dip is about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And especially, if you're working, you need that big boost of energy. So again, it's going to be the carbohydrates: the biscuits, the cakes, the chocolate, the sugary foods, anything that's going to give you that boost. But, of course, because of the effect they have on blood sugar, you're going to crash very quickly as well, and then you're going to crave more of these foods.

3. Stress and anxiety

In menopause, our emotions can be all over the place and you can suddenly find that you start 'emotional eating'. So, you just feel a little bit low, a bit down, a bit anxious, and you're just reaching for something that's going to bring your mood up.

You feel better after you've eaten these foods or drinks, and then, of course, you start to feel guilty because you've eaten too much again. These tend to be comfort foods. So, you might crave a big bowl of cereal and milk with some extra sugar on the top, or it can be stodgy pudding, or it can be loads of potatoes or chips or crisps. It can be sugary and fatty foods too.

What they do is very quickly raise a chemical in the brain called serotonin. And serotonin makes you feel good. But, again, you're going to get that nice hit, you're going feel lovely for a little while and then you're going to dip again, so you're going to end up reaching for more of the biscuits and the stodgy foods.

4. Nutritional deficiencies

Now, remember that your nutritional needs go sky-high in perimenopause and menopause. Your body needs more of everything just in order to keep everything stable. So, if your body is not getting enough of certain nutrients, you will start to crave foods that contain them.

It's a bit like pregnancy. Very often, you get food cravings and it's just because your body needs something extra. So, if you are craving salty foods, it can very often mean you're a little bit deficient in things like magnesium, calcium, and potassium. If you're craving dairy, you're wanting loads of cheese, yoghurt and maybe extra milk, this can be an indication that you may be a little bit low in calcium.

So, for this one, just have a good overhaul of your diet to make sure that you're getting everything that you need.

5. Cravings increasing before periods in perimenopause

In perimenopause, especially if your periods are starting to become a little bit irregular, you may find that your PMS cravings get more exaggerated. So, you might find that a week before your period you start on the sugar cravings.

And, again, with this particular one, cravings before a period can add up to 400 or 500 extra calories a day. So, if you're in the stage where you're maybe wanting to maintain your weight or you find that you're putting on weight, even a few days a week of those extra calories can really contribute to perimenopause and menopause weight gain.

What can you do to control your cravings in perimenopause and menopause

So, what can you do to help yourself here? Here are a few simple things that I recommend...

Eat little and often: The really important thing here is to keep your blood sugar level stable. If you do that, it's going to knock out most of these cravings.

So, it's about eating little and often; it's making sure you're getting plenty of protein, healthy fats, and loads and loads of different vegetables and fruits. The more nutrition that you give your body, the less it's going to crave anything at all.

Don't skip meals: This is very important, and especially don't' skip breakfast. Your body is going on a long journey every single day at this point, and it needs to be well-maintained before you start the day.

Eat well to support your nutritional needs: Again, just make sure that you're getting a little bit of everything. Have a look at your diet. Are you getting enough protein? A lot of women are not eating enough protein at this particular time and that will have a big impact on blood sugar levels. The same thing applies to healthy fats.

And I know that this whole issue of "Oh, if I'm putting on weight, the one thing I cut is the fat." Fat helps to stabilise your blood sugar levels. And very often, having a little bit of healthy fat with each meal is going to be a lot less, calorie-wise, than if you don't take any and then binge on the biscuits and the crisps (full of unhealthy fat). So sometimes, it's a little bit of a trade-off; but, just having extra healthy fats can make a huge difference to how you feel.

Also, substitute the white foods. So, if you're eating a lot of white bread, white rice, and white pasta, these shoot your blood sugar levels up really quickly, so substitute wholemeal bread or pasta. You can get great different substitutes. Instead of wheat, you can get buckwheat noodles; you can get pea protein noodles and spaghetti. So, there's a load of different things that you can swap to, which will be much better for you at the end of the day.

Eat slowly and chew well: The other thing that's really important here is to chew your food slowly. I do it myself. You've got a little while for lunch, so you chomp-chomp, swallow, and suddenly, your lunch is all gone and you just feel as if you haven't had anything.

It can take your brain 20 minutes before it realises that your stomach is full and you don't need anything else. So, if you eat your food in 10, to 15 minutes, your brain doesn't recognise that you've had enough, and it will keep you perpetually hungry. So, a really good tip here is slow down your eating, take at least 20 minutes to eat your meal, and sit away from everything else so you're not watching the TV, you're not on your computer, you're not walking. One of the worse things you can do is to actually eat when you're on the go, because it just switches off your appetite control.

And if you take 20 minutes to chew your food slowly, you're doing two things. You're making sure that your brain knows that you've had enough, you don't need anymore. And you are chewing your food thoroughly so you're getting all the nutrients that your body needs. So doing this, just taking that little bit of extra time, will give you better nutrition and you will eat less, which is really good if you're actually counting the calories. It's really worth putting in that little bit of extra time every single day.

Limit access to the foods you crave – if you don't have them, you can't eat them: I'm an emotional eater. If I get upset or extra stressed, I get sugar cravings. And, for me, it tends to be things like white bread and white pasta that I crave. So, one of the things I've learned over the years is I just don't have them in the house. And then if I do get that kind of emotional cravings, I'll just make myself a boiled egg or have something that's more kind of protein-fat related.

Instead of just reaching into the cupboard and picking a packet of something and eating it, I actually have to go and make something. And very often, by the time you've made that little bit of food, these hunger pangs have actually disappeared or your anxiety levels have gone down.

Find healthier alternatives: If you really do get the sweet cravings, then have some Medjool dates. They are really lovely. They're very big. They are very, very sweet and I don't know anybody that could eat more than a couple at a time. They release their energy slowly, so they're not going to give your blood sugar levels that big hit, but it just makes you feel as if you've had something, you know, a little bit of a treat.

Improve sleep and tackle stress: Look at how you sleep. Try and get your stress under control because this will help to minimise sugar cravings.

Stay hydrated: Remember too that very often, when we think we're hungry, it's because we're thirsty. Our body is getting dehydrated. So, whenever you get the food cravings, first thing to do is have a glass of water and then see whether you really do need something extra to eat.

Support your good gut bacteria: The other thing which is last but not least, is there are a lot of indications coming out now as to how important our friendly bacteria are, both to hormone regulation and also to keeping our blood sugar stable. So, if you're getting a lot of digestive problems, if you've got issues like IBS, if you've had a lot of antibiotics, then it's quite likely that your friendly bacteria are not particularly happy.

In this case, doing things like taking a really good, daily probiotic can work wonders.

Emotional support: If you're struggling with emotional eating, we have a flower essence called Craving Essence, which is a combination flower remedy.

So, I hope you found this one helpful. I know a lot of you are forever commenting on how you find this a really difficult situation to get under control, so hopefully, this has helped.

If any of you have your own tips on how to deal with this, please share them. We love to hear all your stories.

And until then, I will see you next week for another edition of A.Vogel Talks Menopause.

You may also find these topics helpful:

Appetite changes in perimenopause & menopause

Does menopause make you eat more?

Menopause and your increased nutritional needs